


Prehistory of Film

by greendale_student



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Dinosaurs, F/M, Post-Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 13:33:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17245139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greendale_student/pseuds/greendale_student
Summary: Abed and Annie film a movie scene together.





	Prehistory of Film

The golden light of a summer afternoon warms the dry grass and pine trees of a canyon in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, reflecting off the water in a clear stream below. Abed and Annie scramble towards the creek, dodging among the pines to evade the pursuit of a ferocious dinosaur. “There!” Annie shouts, pointing to the stream. “Allosaurs usually hunt in open plains, he may not want to cross the river.” They sprint across the clearing along the streambank, startling a chipmunk, which dashes out of their way with a loud call. That wasn’t in the script, but it will add authenticity to the scene.

“Okay, cut,” Abed announces. They stop running just a few feet from the water, waving their arms to avoid falling into the creek. Annie sits down by the stream while Abed walks over to the camera placed on a tripod further up the slope. Reviewing the footage, he sees that this take looks the way he envisioned when writing the scene—except the _Allosaurus_ , which would need to be added to the shot using low-budget special effects. He also notices that the camera captured a few moments of Annie relaxing out-of-character. They aren’t useful for his movie, but something—maybe the light shining on the water, maybe her expression as she looked at him even if he wasn’t sure what it meant—holds his attention.

Shaking his head, Abed focuses on what he needs to film today to keep shooting for  _Time-osaurs_ on schedule. “We can film the river crossing now,” he tells Annie. This shot is tricky; their clothes will be wet after they swim across the creek, so for continuity purposes they should really get this right in one take. Abed starts filming while Annie poses on the water’s edge, ready to leap, taking on her character’s mannerisms. Abed wonders if there should be a making-of documentary, just to have a use for this footage. Walking down to the water, he reviews the plan for the shot with Annie. She nods attentively; knowing her attention to detail, he thinks she already had that memorized from the script. When they’re both lined up for the shot, Abed shouts, “Action!”

They spring towards the water, splashing into a pool carefully chosen so they would be able to swim without encountering rocks. The water is cold, even on a warm day, but Annie does an impressive job of staying in character, appearing focused on escaping the dinosaur. They pull themselves up the far bank, looking back towards the camera with wide eyes. Abed pictures the Allosaur roaring in frustration at their clever escape.

The shot finished, they sit on the rocks next to the water, warming themselves in the sunlight. “Did we do that right?” Annie asks.

“I think so.” Abed hasn’t seen the take on film yet, but they followed the script perfectly. Annie leans against him casually. She’s probably trying to get warm after the cold swim, and it’s not like they don’t have a lot of casually affectionate contact like this at home in their shared apartment, but something about this moment makes Abed feel nervous. He stands and fords the stream where the water is shallow, going to see what they filmed.

The take worked. Of course, the camera was still filming until Abed turned it off. Maybe that was what made him feel uncharacteristically awkward about touching Annie—that the action was on film but not in character. Seeing her lean on him in the background of the shot, the gesture looks significant; if TV characters did that, it could suggest they were more than friends. Do they always look like that, when they huddle together to read Troy’s text messages from remote islands as he sails around the world or sit next to each other and tentatively hold hands in front of the TV even though there’s plenty of room on the couch?

Abed takes the camera to the stream, leaning over to carefully hand it to Annie on the other bank. He places it for the next shot, in which their scientist characters would climb the streambank and see to their relief that the dinosaur wouldn’t ford the river. Two takes go well, but Abed wants to try a different camera angle. He adjusts the angle and they do the shot again. This time, Annie trips on a rock while climbing the steep bank. Abed catches her; she yelps, startled, then smiles as he helps her to her feet. Annie reaches to help Abed climb and looks at where the  _Allosaurus_ is supposed to be, admirably committed to her character, so Abed follows her lead and acts out the rest of the shot.

“Can we use that one?” Annie asks as Abed reviews the footage. “I think I stayed in character pretty well, and it was a nice moment.” Abed tilts his head, watching her. Is she blushing?

The shot looks great, but Abed isn’t sure what to make of their out-of-character interactions today. “I’m not sure it fits with the characters’ motivations, though,” he  cautions. Their main motivation in this scene is to avoid being eaten by a dinosaur, but in a movie that moment would look like it was hinting at a romantic connection between the characters, which he hadn’t included in the script. Though given the way he and Annie approached roleplaying in Dungeons and Dragons, paintball, or imaginated dreamscapes, maybe that would work well for their characters here. Annie is looking at Abed with an expression he categorizes as a subtle version of her Disney face. “ But  I guess some improvisation would be good for this scene,”  he says. As they plan the next shot, Abed wonders what their improvisations in the movie mean about their relationship. He’s still wary of incidents like this, not sure how they affect their character dynamics. But as Abed watches Annie smile at him and talk about filming logistics with sincere enthusiasm, he realizes he wants to keep including her in projects like this.

Finishing the scene, Abed puts away the camera, making plans to do some more filming with Annie the next day. As they walk to the road, watching the sunlight on the water, their hands touch slightly. Abed wraps his fingers gently around Annie’s; she doesn’t comment, but returns the gesture and smiles. Holding Annie’s hand, Abed is looking forward to their next opportunity for some improvisational  acting .


End file.
